Hip Hop artist made the big mistake by not resurrecting their own media outlets... They became too dependent upon the commercial stations in their market to play their material and take their careers to the next level.. What they didn't realize was that radio while working them for the moment always stayed focused on its own agenda.. Hence you take a station like ours...KMEL.. Two years ago we found ourselves playing a lot of local rap groups.. It worked for us.. It helped keep us number one.. But when the winds of change came.. we found ourselves not playing the locals folks and moving in a different direction.. It was what we as a station had to do to maintain our dominant position.. A lot of the local artists began raising a fuss.. 'Why are you abandoning us?' they would whine... All of a sudden you would see one of two reactions.. Either the artists got totally pissed off at the station or they would show up and basically ask for the formula so they could go home and construct a record for the radio.. What a sad move..

It's killing hip hop because the artists have handed the guardianship and the music to folks who have never really had an interest for the music until it became necessary for them to keep a number one rating.. You can't fault anyone at a commercial station.. that's what they're supposed to do.. Stay up and know about the latest trends and be able to present them to their target audience.. If only more rap artists knew that then you wouldn't have such glaring mistakes happening... Here's an example.. When KRS-One released his last lp.. The first singles weren't leaked to those die hard KRS-One fans on community and college radio.. They were released to commercial DJs.. Some of whom didn't even own a KRS-One lp.. His record label flew a bunch of people out for a huge listening party in New York.. None of them were the die hard fans who had his 7 previous lps. I recall running into Kris when he came to the station and he asked me why I hadn't gone to his lp release party.. I told him I was never issued an invitation... But there were folks who did go who didn't even recognize the South Bronx beat that Puffy sampled for his R&B group Total... This incident was not unique to KRS-One.. It happens all the time...

What often happens is that label executives will do things for key commercial DJs in order to maintain a good relationship. So even though KRS-One may not have been the staple artist for some of the commercial jocks who were flown to his listening party.. the decision set the stage for other product from other artists on that label later down the road.. The people left sitting down and scratching their heads were all those KRS-One fans who couldn't understand why they couldn't get the interview much less invited to his stellar listening party.

I use this example to make a point that hip hop has a bad habit of killing itself off by not reinvesting in the very things that help give it it's start... Far too many artist get caught up in the vapors of the industry that they don't take some practical steps like getting their own venues to perform shows, Developing their own insurance, security and sound companies for these shows. They don't try and set up their own video shows.. and they don't invest in radio stations that they have continual access to.... Hence when I say hip hop is dead... I mean that its creativity has been squelched and that its become more of a business... Everything seems so contrived and calculated with the overall objective of netting big bucks and not necessarily to satisfy an artistic desire or to please fans.. What's even more ironic and sad about this situation is that there seems to be a new breed of hip hoppers who are determined to 'keep it real'.. Their goal seems to keep hip hop situated in the underground.. However, that in itself seems contrived and at best a futile effort.. I hate seeing rich kids with loot in their pocket pretending to be poor and bummy talking about they're trying to keep it real.. I hate seeing kids from the proverbial suburbs running around trying their best to adapt a negative 'ghetto mentality' all under the guise of keeping it real.. Even worse are the pseudo experts who run around and some how try to politicize and philosophy the actions of hip hop artists in ways that have no connection to the realities of the artists they're supposedly 'down with'.. You know the type...? It's the kid who runs around talking about revolution and tearing down the establishment... but then won't share any resources, power or incorporate the perspectives and concerns of the hip hoppers who hail from the inner city.

So what's it gonna take to bring hip hop back? It's a hard question to answer... Whatever the method use to achieve this.. I firmly believe it will have to be rooted in hip hop becoming independent of these outside business controlled mediums.. It will also have to take some hug steps and start maturing... There are far too many within hip hop who refuse to grow up and take on the responsibility of protecting and defining what we create...Too many of us are making a living off the music and culture and not reinvesting back... It's something to think about...